Title: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
Author: Dan Ariely
Published: 2008 by Harper Collins
I can't exactly recall how this book got on my list of books to read, and that's a shame because whoever recommended it was dead on. This book is similar in many ways to one I reviewed previously, Mindless Eating, in that it sets out to show how our decision making process is much more complicated than we reason.
Let me start off with an example from the book. The author ran a study which asked students to perform a menial task for which they would be paid. On a computer they selected a virtual room and then were able to click on objects that would pay them a certain amount, based on which room it was. During one iteration, they spiced up the test by making rooms disappear if they were neglected for a certain amount of time. Users tended to waste their clicks keeping the doors open, rather than using them to earn money in a room.
Is this an efficient way to live our lives--especially when another door or two is added every week? I can't tell you the answer for certain in terms of your personal life, but in our experiments we saw clearly that running from pillar to post was not only stressful but uneconomical. In fact, in their frenzy to keep doors from shutting, our participants ended up making substantially less money (about 15 percent less) than the participants who didn't have to deal with closing doors. The truth is that they could have made more money by picking a room--any room--and merely staying there for the whole experiment!
The book is chock full of stories similar to this one, so it's a great read just for the humor. But it does have a number of lessons to be teach as well covering procrastinating, honesty, dieting, saving, and many more topics. It's an invaluable tool to look at how you make your own decisions. Occasionally I found myself thinking quietly, "well, duh!" only to remember a few moments later some choice I had made which was equally as flawed.
My one complaint I suppose is that he often answers questions with more stories, e.g. "how does that work? Well, let me give you another example that explains it." He does eventually come to a conclusion, so no need to fear being left hanging, and the stories are of course interesting so it's not a waste of time. I just found it somewhat humorous that he kept doing it over and over. I suppose that makes him predictably irrational. :)